Fourteen Days of Food: Day 4

Thought I was maybe going to leave you food post-less today? WRONG. Far too stubborn to give up on a challenge, so much so that I've realised I'm going to be away for 3 days in the middle of this so I will need to be pre-emptively baking {don't hold me to this - I'm away for an interview so may have to do some prep.  Sadly I don't think cakes will cut it}.  Anyway, up next is lemon drizzle cake.

Now this is one of the boy's favourite cakes and was pretty high on the request list when I suggested this little challenge.  And I've never made one before so I figured why not.

I looked up the basic recipe from google and came across this one but played around with the quantities, as is my want and ended up just using the basic Victoria sponge recipe my Mum ingrained in me as a little girl with some lemon in it!.

I started off preheating my oven to gas mark 4 {160 degrees C I think?} and uses a basic Victoria sponge recipe like I said - 8oz  S.R flour, 8oz caster sugar, 8oz butter and 4 eggs. I personally used an all in one approach, adding in a tsp of baking powder and the finally grated zest of 2 small lemons before whacking it all in the mixer on a medium speed for a while.  If you aren't taking the easy option, cream together your butter and sugar and in a separate bowl beat your eggs together.  Mix in the eggs, little by little, to the butter/sugar combo, alternating each time with a bit of sifted flour.  Right at the very end, when you're down to just a bit of flour, fold this in rather than beat to get lots of air into this mixture.  Add your lemon zest at the same time {I nearly forgot the lemon zest...doh}.

Grease and line a loaf tin with baking paper before adding in the mix and baking for approximately 45minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.  If, like me, your oven isn't fan powered, keep your eyes peeled in case one side starts to burn/cook a smidge too fast.  Just turn it round quickly {I'm sure Delia wouldn't agree with opening the oven but whatevs}.

When you finally take the cake out the oven, poke a whole load of holes in the top using a skewer, sharp knife or fork.  Mix up approx 100g of caster sugar with the juice of the 2 lemons you zested before {is that even a word?!} and use this as your drizzle.  Pour over the top of your cake whilst it is still warm and leave to cool thoroughly in the tin {you have more willpower than me if you manage this}.  I thoroughly recommend eating it whilst drinking a large cup of tea, as I am right now. Genuinely? I reckon I could eat the whole thing.

Love B x